Every season has its bounties, and we love them all equally - it’s just that we might love Spring a little more equally than the rest. The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it brevity of many of its best ingredients makes this time of year a seasonal sprint of trying to get to as much as possible before its too late, so from the tail end of forced rhubarb to the first sights of wild garlic, here’s the best Spring dishes in Dublin right now.
Cod, shiitake and wild garlic, Delahunt
Delahunt are leaning hard into wild garlic’s vibrant palette with the head-turning colours on this plate. Thin-sliced shiitake is layered like scales over a loin of cod, all swimming in a sauce of wild garlic and dashi. If that bright, brilliant green doesn’t
scream spring, we don’t know what does.
Octopus, chickpea and wild fennel, A Fianco
Full credit to the folks at A Fianco for bringing the best of seasonal Italian ingredients to Dublin: after spoiling us with ovoli mushrooms in autumn they’re now treating us to a taste of wild fennel, bringing delicate balance to a dish of grilled octopus, mashed chickpeas and a chili breadcrumb topping. We’ve already been round to sample this one, and we think you need do too.
Wild garlic grilled cheese, Loose Canon
You can practically hear the squeals of excitement going up around Dublin every time a new toastie drops at Loose Canon. This wine bar is expert at pairing the finest fromage with all manner of in-season ingredients for a truly satisfying small plate. Here, wild garlic makes for an ideal bedfellow with the earthy notes of raw cow’s milk cheese Cáis Dubh.
Roast white chocolate and rhubarb cheesecake, Volpe Nera
Our favourite spring fruit (though it’s technically a vegetable) gets the three-ways treatment in Volpe Nera’s cheesecake dessert with a gel, ice cream and poached baton of rhubarb amping up the pink prettiness. That makes for a lot of tart flavour, perfect to cut through the sweet caramel complexity of roasted white chocolate - a very smart pairing.
Gnudi with morels, broad beans and crispy eggs, Mamó
One of the more prized wild mushroom varieties, morels thrive in the warming, wet soil of springtime, popping out of the ground and onto our plates for a blissful few weeks beginning in late March. Mamó have paired them with another classic spring ingredient in asparagus and layered the two among the contrasting textures of gnudi and crispy eggs. We’re all in for all of this.
Rhubarb choux, The Morning Bakery
As the forced rhubarb season comes to a close for another year, canny cooks will be whipping up all manner of compotes and chutneys, pickles and preserves, to make it last a few more months. Newcomer The Morning Bakery has gone for a jam and piped in into a choux bun along with a lashing of cream. What better way to say goodbye.
Dublin Bay prawns with morels, Glover’s Alley
It’s Michelin Star morels over at Glover’s Alley, where the wild mushrooms are paired with our very own Dublin Bay prawns, and rounded out with the seasoned succulence of lardo and parsley oil. For those looking to really spoil themselves this spring.
Wild garlic and chicken melt, 147 Deli
There’s no end to the inventive ways wild garlic can be used to add flavour to a dish, but pesto might just be our favourite. The latest of 147 Deli’s ever-excellent specials blends the foraged herb with ricotta and walnuts and slathers it over roasted chicken thigh, smoked streaky bacon and melted mozzarella. Move quick on this one – it’s only on for the week.
Mushroom and wild garlic slice, Bambino
Dublin’s buzziest slice shop Bambino gets in on the seasonal game with a square slab that sings spring’s praises, while acknowledging, eh, it still feels a bit wintry. Mounds of hen of the woods and chestnut mushrooms are topped off with a wild garlic salsa verde (see, we said there’s no end), three cheeses and a garlic crema. Glorious.
Lemon posset with rhubarb and hazelnut crumb, Lottie’s
The light, sharp sensation of posset might not be unique to spring, but it’s a dessert that always puts us in mind of longer evenings. Lottie's have used the complimentary textures of pink poached rhubarb and a chunky hazelnut crumb to add fruity, nutty notes to the creamy lemon base for a simple but sophisticated seasonal spoonful.
